Hi-fi's Future, and How We Need to Shape it, Not Merely Accept It

My recent Sonic Satori article for Positive Feedback has been getting an amazing response! I'm pumped, because I poured my freakin' heart into that piece. I'm fighting for the industry that gave me my first real job. By real job, I mean a sense of where I belonged, where the focus was something that ALWAYS spoke to me; Music!

Getting to work for The Absolute Sound and Harry Pearson, learn from that man, and later become friends - only to be blessed and move on to working for the great Arif Mardin at Atlantic Records!!!! I worked my ass off, and we also became good friends. What a life, followed by blunders that have practically killed me. -

and here I'm finally getting a real chance to take all those blessed times and experiences, and put them into the only thing I'm actually good at; writing. I'm
not saying that as some idiot/conceded fool.

I believe I can do great things when I get aligned with the right team again. A team willing to take a chance on me, and thats not a long shot considering my experience. Man I gotta fuckin go for it, when you got nothing left to lose, and you're finally up for fighting the good fight - you gotta keep drivin'...

Check out "The Tower" by Soapbox Army.Their album is in my top 5 for 09: http://ping.fm/4rMUS

Working on letter of intent for job at LA Audio/Video and VFX. Goin for it all finally. What ya do when U got nothin to lose

The Reference 3A Dulcet Speakers Rock!!!

My review of the Dulcet speakers from Reference 3A has been published in this months issue of Positive Feedback Online:
Remaining objective is the ultimate goal for any journalist striving for excellence. We are however, human beings and so we naturally develop certain biases over time. Those biases come to color and shape our outlook, especially when we're talking about something that holds our passion. I would never attempt to claim complete objectivity when it comes to Hi-fi gear, especially loudspeakers. I also found, while working in Hi-fi retail for Soundscape up in Santa Rosa, that speakers are very much a personal preference type of product. There were speakers in the store that I loved, and would always try, at the very least, to share my feelings about them with customers. Many of them however, came in with their own idea of what "good" sound was, and ultimately it was about making them happy. I would occasionally end up in a listening session with a speaker that I felt did not adequately produce a musical experience, while the person spending the money was satisfied, and that was my job.
READ MORE HERE AT POSITIVE FEEDBACK ONLINE

Latest BuzzOfTheBay blog: http://bit.ly/94Xdd Bay Area Artists! Are You Taking Advantage of the MANY Online Tools Available to You??

Williamsburg Bridge - the poem (just submitted to the New Yorker)

I recently unearthed this poem I wrote back in 1996 entitled Williamsburg Bridge. I read it to Alexandra, and I wasn't too embarrassed about it actually! I have always wanted to submit my poems to the New Yorker, and so this is the first. I now get five more submissions (their rules) and so I'm gonna be diggin' through the cyberfile cabinet, and even working on a couple of new pieces.

Hope you dig this:

Williamsburg Bridge


Earth smothered under pavement.
Light racing under tunnels.
Exhausted coughs blowing sandstorms.
Newspapers stretched across telephone wires.

Laughter shoots across dividers,
filled with skateboarding bounty hunters.

Red beams swinging counter-clockwise,
screaming at criminals hopping fences.




Written By: Michael Mercer
(Recently recovered, originally written in 1996)

Vintage & Futuristic, Blitzen Trapper Captures a Fresh Sound

Have you heard of Blitzen Trapper? This band from the Pacific Northwest has truly forged a wonderful sound that is both classic and futuristic sounding at the same time. Their folky, alt-country, and straight up 60's-style mellow rock-n-roll all tossed into one big musical salad bowl!!

I recently reviewed their Black River Killer EP for my BuzzOfTheBay column on Bandsofthebay.com.

Please check out the review HERE + PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT!!

We got a nice cyber-conversation going on my last article there (the one covering the Tenenbaum court case - where this poor college student found himself owing $675,000 in copyright infringement fees for sharing music online). The link to my article there is also below - here on The Amplified Voice.